A growing number of schools, kindergartens and other educational institutions are realising the importance and value of sensory play, especially for children with special needs such as those with autism. To provide sensory play, they turn to a registered NDIS provider for educational & sensory toys for supply including autism books, hire experienced practitioners and train their existing teachers in how to execute it.
But what is sensory play, exactly? And why are schools embracing it in this way? What does it offer to children?
What is Sensory Play? It refers to activities designed to stimulate children’s senses: touch, taste, sight, hearing and smell. In other words, it is an educational exploration where the senses are used as the primary tool for learning. But what value does this really have overall?
1. Children Engage Directly With Learning Materials
Far from just learning through remote theories and teacher-led instruction, sensory learning is all about students getting directly involved with learning materials. They pick them up, feel them, smell them and see them right before their eyes. Through this kind of close contact with what they’re learning about, they build connections between the different aspects of learning.
Those connections really matter when it comes to later in their educational life. Building connections between various subjects and learning material is what ultimately builds critical faculties and develops students into thinkers and lifelong learners. Sensory play is simply the foundation of that kind of journey, particularly when you have a child with special needs, along with advisedtreatments for autism spectrum disorder.
2. Promotes Physical Movement And Gross/Fine Motor Skills
Kids with special physical and other educational needs benefit from any and every activity that helps to promote physical movement and skills. All kids need to master them, but sensory play helps students who might be behind others to catch up or at least develop at a similar rate.
Just imagine students engaging in sensory play using coloured tiles or similar objects all made from different materials and in different textures. As they explore the different looks and feels, they’re picking up and setting down each and every piece. They may pass them between each other, move them about in their fingers, all the time improving fine motor skills like their precision grip.
3. Builds Curiosity And Creativity
Sensory play is driven by exploration. Students explore various activities, materials, objects and environments that stimulate the various senses. In doing so, young learners’ natural curiosity is nurtured and equally stimulated as they move from one activity to the next. As their curiosity grows, so too does the number of questions in their mind grow that they wish eagerly to seek answers to. These are the building blocks of the above-mentioned lifelong love of learning that teachers so want to impart on their students of all ages.
4. Helps Sharpen Focus And Attention Span
Sensory play is highly engaging for students, and thus can be extremely helpful in building up their attention span and ability to focus. If they can engage in one sensory activity for an extended time, they can learn the rewards of focus, patience and perseverance. There may have been a time when this was just something for special needs students, but a growing attention span is a more commonly needed asset in the information and smartphone age.
5. It’s Easily Tailored To Suit Different Needs
One could hardly describe sensory play as restrictive or limiting. Teachers organising sensory play are limited only by their imaginations, as are the students when they get their hands on each activity. If a teacher has a mixed group of those with special educational needs and those without, sensory play is a fantastic and adaptable teaching method that brings students together, building stronger friendships between them and helping to bridge gaps.
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